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1:10

and welcome to Good One, a podcast about

1:12

jokes. I'm your host, Jesse David Fox. Each

1:15

episode, the guest plays a clip of one of their

1:17

jokes and discusses how and why they came up with

1:19

it. This week's guest

1:21

is Rami Youssef, creator and star

1:24

of Rami, recent SNL host, and

1:26

standup comedian whose second special, More

1:28

Feelings, came out recently. Rami

1:30

has been building this hour since his last special, 2019's

1:32

Feelings, but the set came

1:35

into focus in the weeks following October 7th. Though

1:38

he spends a good amount of this special talking

1:40

about Israel and Palestine, the joke we're going to

1:42

start with this episode was the first he wrote

1:44

about the response to the 7th. So,

1:47

here is Rami Youssef. We

1:54

need new shit. People

1:56

still keep putting us in this position, in

1:59

this weird... spot where

2:01

they doubt us. October

2:03

10th I get a call from

2:06

a guy I know. He goes

2:08

yo bro where you at with

2:10

Hamas? Where

2:14

am I at? Like are

2:17

we fucking? What's the... am I a

2:20

member? You

2:23

think any of us like what happened on October

2:25

7th? It's awful.

2:28

We hate seeing people die.

2:30

It's inhumane. It made me cry

2:32

and it always does. It's why

2:34

we've been talking about Palestine our

2:36

whole lives. We hate what's happening

2:38

there. We want justice. We

2:40

want peace and we do.

2:42

Of course

2:46

I don't like it. Now I got to prove to you

2:48

that I'm not violent. Like you think that's what's in my

2:50

heart? You know me. You think

2:52

like I'm like Hamas. Like bro I'm

2:55

a Taliban guy. Like that's a

2:59

real group. They've been going

3:01

for 20 years. You know

3:04

what I'm saying? Like they're

3:06

strong. They don't

3:08

let anybody go to school. Like that's... Hamas

3:12

is letting people go to school. I don't like

3:14

that. Like I

3:16

hate school. I resent

3:19

the question. I resent

3:21

the question. I am here with Ramayyusef.

3:23

Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks

3:26

Jesse. Before we talk about the show,

3:28

I want to start on October 6th

3:30

of 2023. Where were you at

3:33

the special then? Where

3:35

was your material? What

3:37

were you thinking? Where was it all at? You

3:39

know I think the thing that would

3:42

be kind of I don't know maybe surprising

3:44

maybe not but the set isn't

3:47

that much different. You know I

3:49

think that these are these

3:52

are themes that obviously

3:54

have been in my work and and I think

3:56

because they're personal and I think I always kind

3:58

of go at something. from a personal

4:01

point of view anyway, so even if

4:03

it's a big thing. So it wasn't

4:06

that much different. I think there are certain

4:08

things that definitely are topical. The

4:11

order of the set and certain things

4:13

like that definitely were different because I

4:15

tend to not pick an order until

4:17

I'm getting close to shooting. So I mean,

4:19

this is my second special, but it felt

4:22

very similar to when I did my first

4:24

where I'm running a lot of material. I'm

4:26

actually running too much material. I

4:28

think by the time I got to the shoot, my

4:31

sets were like 90 minutes and then I

4:33

said, okay, let's slim this down to 50

4:35

and what's the order? What

4:38

am I really trying to say? You know,

4:41

when you're doing 90, it's fun, but there's

4:43

also, you're being repetitive and then you try

4:45

to edit it to a place

4:48

that feels most worth

4:51

people's time. So October

4:54

7th happens the next day. And just, and

4:56

so I want to talk about sort of

4:58

how you thought about your work and

5:00

your comedy afterwards. Do you have a sense of when

5:02

you performed next? I

5:06

performed on the seventh. I

5:08

was in Toronto and that

5:11

was different. I

5:13

didn't, because I think at that time we didn't

5:15

really have a lot of information. So

5:18

yeah, there

5:20

wasn't even, I don't even think we

5:22

understood. I remember the earlier

5:24

reports, it almost kind of felt like this

5:27

was like military stuff. It

5:29

wasn't really clear what was going on. So

5:32

I would say that the tenor

5:34

wasn't really much different. I think

5:37

later on, you know, obviously in

5:39

the, even the week that followed,

5:41

it was, what was

5:43

weird was it, again,

5:46

feeling the sensation that it

5:49

looked like I just was, I'm

5:52

thinking about, wow, you're really prolific. You just wrote

5:54

about all this stuff. And again, there's a few

5:56

jokes that are new, but

5:59

I think. that yeah,

6:02

I think in a way, it felt

6:06

like I had to do less bridging to what I

6:08

wanted to talk about and that a

6:10

lot more people were attuned to it and sensitive

6:12

to it and wanting

6:14

to connect around

6:16

it in ways that were kind

6:18

of outside of the cycle of

6:21

just getting stuck in Instagram rabbit

6:23

holes and the news and all

6:25

of those things that can feel

6:28

really difficult to digest. So

6:30

yeah, let's I want to talk a little

6:33

bit about the sort of the sort

6:35

of week afterwards and all obviously, all

6:37

the information that came out and everything

6:39

that happened afterwards. And so

6:41

you have material that is sort of about

6:45

it on a sort of more macro level or sort

6:47

of from your personal experience, but also

6:49

just sort of like, you're a person

6:51

and you have to deal with it. And then you have this, or

6:54

how what are you sort of feeling generally as

6:56

you're sort of hearing what's coming out? No,

6:58

and processing like, Oh,

7:01

am I am I supposed to

7:03

be doing something about this in my work? Is my work

7:05

reflecting what I have to be saying about this? What was

7:07

that like? Yeah,

7:09

I mean, I think there's just the immediate

7:12

thing, which is still very

7:15

real right now, I think there's

7:18

something that I think people who

7:21

aren't Arab who

7:23

aren't Muslim, I think, or even I would

7:26

I could even zoom it out to saying, immigrants

7:29

really can understand this

7:31

feeling of your heart being

7:33

connected to where you're from, to, you

7:36

know, people who are connected to you, whether

7:39

through culture,

7:41

nationality, and religion, you

7:43

know, and there's this, this,

7:46

like the hearts are tethered, you know.

7:48

And so I think they're the reason

7:50

why, you know, a lot

7:52

of these themes have been in my work is for two

7:54

reasons. One, because my heart has always been tethered that way.

7:56

And then the second thing has always been, you know, I

8:00

The more I think about it, you know,

8:02

I've been having these conversations with people where

8:04

I'm like, I think I'm a hardcore American

8:06

in a real, real way. Because I

8:09

am just so dedicated

8:12

to this idea and I still believe

8:14

in it, that I'm so dedicated to

8:16

this idea that this is where

8:18

we could figure it out. Like

8:20

this is where we can have the

8:22

conversations. This is where we've been neighbors.

8:24

This is where we have so many

8:26

shared experiences that we could do this,

8:29

you know, and so I'm a hardcore

8:31

optimist. I'm a hardcore American. I

8:33

believe in that. And so I think

8:35

with that and with, you

8:37

know, my heart always being tethered to there,

8:40

there's this two-fold feeling that I've had. There's

8:43

always been a bit of a sadness. I've

8:45

been to the region. You know, I performed

8:48

in one of the first ever

8:50

Palestinian comedy festivals. I've shot in

8:52

Palestine and in Haifa and met

8:54

the people. And so immediately there's

8:56

this feeling of I'm worried about

8:58

people that I know who are

9:00

there. You know, in the

9:02

third season of my show, we had

9:04

kids from the Freedom Theater in Janine,

9:07

you know, which is in the West Bank,

9:09

which has been, you know,

9:12

wrecked even further post-October

9:14

7th. And it's not

9:17

even a Hamas, you know,

9:19

area. This is just there. There

9:21

has just been this

9:23

uptick in everything

9:26

imaginable. You know, the response

9:29

still continues. And

9:32

so, you know, when you ask about that week,

9:34

it's a deep, deep depression. It's

9:37

a fear. And I

9:40

think I've been low-grade depressed since

9:42

it, you know, and that

9:44

spikes. There are times where it's really high and

9:47

then there's times where, you know, maybe

9:49

I'm focused on trying to write something. And

9:51

so I think something here is an offering

9:54

that I hope is worth people's time, that

9:56

I hope is something amidst what kind of

9:58

can feel like it. general you know

10:01

helplessness. So

10:03

you know as we said the first night you

10:05

perform but it's mostly you know the show is

10:07

the show because there, though

10:09

it's the date it's not like everyone knew what it was

10:11

like do you remember

10:14

the first show where

10:16

it didn't feel like that and how long?

10:19

Yeah and I think and I think I started

10:21

shows for a very very long time I mean

10:23

and I think it's because I was doing so

10:25

many shows because I was ramping up knowing I'm

10:27

gonna shoot at some point and so I had

10:29

a lot of shows and I had stacked a

10:32

lot of shows because we were

10:34

also on a strike and it was just this clear window

10:37

for me to do a lot of stand-up. I

10:41

had no one opening my shows because I felt I

10:43

had to set the tone so I was just doing

10:45

the shows by myself and I

10:47

was opening a lot of them probably

10:50

for about five minutes saying I'm not sure that I

10:52

should be doing stand-up right now. I

10:54

kind of spent a lot of

10:56

time debating whether it's worth what

10:59

I'm doing can you you know because

11:01

people say comedy can help heal you

11:03

know that's debatable for me but also

11:06

even if it can how

11:08

do you heal something that's being actively wounded

11:10

you know what how does that work? So

11:13

I think I started these shows

11:16

acknowledging whether we should

11:18

even be there and then acknowledging that the room was

11:20

full and obviously we all

11:22

want to be here even if we're not

11:24

sure that we want to be here so let's see how

11:26

this goes and I think every

11:28

show was different and every show based

11:32

on how I felt that

11:34

day based on how the audience was picking

11:36

up on it there was a lot of

11:38

solidarity I think there was a lot of

11:40

you know people in the room feeling oh

11:42

it's really nice to be somewhere you

11:46

know where you feel understood and you can kind of connect with people.

11:50

Yeah I mean it's

11:52

interesting because it reminds

11:54

me of two things right

11:56

it's like I've read a lot about what it was like to be

11:58

a comedian after 9-11. But

12:00

it's obviously different because 9-11 happened and then like obviously

12:03

there's a fall of 9-11 but like it was a

12:05

specific time. And also there, it's

12:07

also like the thing of like when people were

12:09

doing comedy about COVID while COVID was still happening.

12:11

Because you had this material already, like what did

12:13

you learn about sort of the lines people had

12:15

and how did you navigate it? Yeah,

12:18

I mean, I think what's interesting, you

12:20

know, even with the 9-11 framing, you

12:23

know, because it comes up a lot

12:25

is it goes to your

12:27

first question, right, which is October 6th. Why

12:30

do I have all this material? It's because man, October

12:33

6th was fucked up. This

12:36

has been this question

12:39

you're asking about how to do that when people don't

12:41

know how to hit like, like that's just always the

12:44

case. It's actually always the case.

12:47

And then and then I think, you

12:49

know, the seventh does happen. But

12:51

something I've said a lot is just, you know, to the

12:54

brilliance of your question, but something I've said a

12:56

lot is like, yeah, and you know, we

12:59

need to talk about October 7th. And you

13:01

cannot talk about October 7 without talking about October 6th. It

13:04

does not undercut October 7th to talk about October 6th.

13:07

When you talk about October 6th and October

13:09

7th, you are actually honoring

13:11

and respecting everyone involved and is

13:13

the only way to figure out

13:16

what lasting justice can look like

13:18

because we've never looked back at

13:21

being reactionary with anything positive. So

13:23

for even going to talk about

13:25

9-11, there are very few

13:28

people on any side of anything that

13:30

can tell you that that response was,

13:32

you know, appropriate, you know,

13:34

that it was proportionate, that it was,

13:36

you know, even

13:38

aimed at the right thing. Right. And

13:41

maybe there's a historian that wants to cite like a

13:44

warmongering immediate response going

13:47

well and sitting well in

13:49

the conscience of future generations.

13:52

But like all militaristic responses, this

13:54

one will not age well either.

13:57

And so I think it's kind of

13:59

important to. be able to

14:01

hold all of it and make room

14:03

for everybody and I think make room

14:05

for everybody's feelings and

14:08

also kind of you

14:11

know be able to talk about it

14:13

with with all those perspectives. Do

14:15

you remember any specific examples of

14:17

time someone in

14:19

any direction reacted in

14:22

a way that you felt like I need to address

14:24

this in some way and how did you sort of

14:26

address it? I think things get lost

14:28

online. What I love so

14:30

much about stand-up is that that hasn't really happened

14:32

because I think again there's an

14:35

agreement when you come to a stand-up

14:37

show that's live you know you

14:41

you're agreeing you're participating you're part of it

14:43

we all put on shoes we all showed

14:45

up you know we're all invested in it

14:47

going well I don't think anyone goes to

14:49

a stand-up show wanting to have a bad time and

14:52

I think that intent is

14:55

incredibly vivid when you can

14:58

see the person you

15:00

know and and you can just watch them breathe

15:02

you kind of know why they're

15:04

saying what they're saying and

15:07

so I've done so

15:09

many rooms that are just all sorts of types

15:12

of people Muslim, Jewish, black, white

15:14

you know everyone's kind of there and and

15:16

I think that it's pretty clear that I'm

15:18

trying to find the most fucked

15:21

up way to connect and

15:24

that I won't

15:26

spare anyone mostly myself you

15:29

know so I'm not going to

15:31

go at anyone without you know

15:33

really giving you double

15:36

of you know my

15:38

head on the chopping block because I think that's fun

15:41

and it's stylistically fun for

15:43

me and I think it it it

15:45

kind of creates something that that makes

15:47

me you know again

15:49

feel like we're kind of meeting

15:52

somewhere that maybe only a comedy set could

15:54

allow you to meet at. And

15:56

the other thing is work did you I don't know

15:58

if you would talk to people after Your

16:00

shows or did you have any interactions where people?

16:03

Would say what it meant and

16:06

it might be just like that was funny But like did

16:08

you feel like there was something different about how people reacted

16:10

to you? I'll

16:13

get a lot of messages. You know I would get

16:15

a lot of you know you like emails and and

16:19

And and sometimes anytime I would talk to people

16:21

after the show I

16:23

think there's a lot of gratitude and a lot of

16:25

people saying Really saying

16:28

kind of what I was saying of

16:30

I was not sure that I should come tonight. You

16:32

know I wasn't Sure

16:35

if I was allowed to come tonight more

16:37

so from that place of there's so much suffering

16:39

going on am I really allowed? To

16:42

have fun tonight is that okay, and

16:44

then it feeling At

16:48

least my hope was that it would feel

16:50

replenishing to continue to Care

16:54

and think thoughtfully and have

16:56

thoughtful conversations everyone in

16:58

their social circle is doing some version of Spreading

17:02

some awareness having tough conversations

17:04

trying to push for whatever

17:06

job. They're at organization They're

17:08

involved with whatever to

17:11

kind of be more present

17:14

to To the

17:16

suffering to be you know obviously quite

17:18

directly here There have been these

17:21

big lines that have been drawn, and I think everyone is

17:23

working on trying to like Obliterate

17:25

those lines wherever they are I

17:27

could I think people ultimately are

17:29

sincere and so Yeah,

17:32

so I think I think I would feel from a lot of people.

17:34

You know oh this night kind of recharged me a little bit The

17:37

so as we talk about material and there as

17:40

you said a lot of stuff is stuff you

17:42

had and obviously things you were thinking About and

17:44

there are obviously jokes that seem pretty clearly Things

17:48

that came after there's the joke will

17:50

talk about it has a date that

17:52

has clearly happened, but Before

17:54

we get to that What does writing

17:56

mean to you when you're writing stand up? What Does

17:58

it look like? You do it. And

18:01

you lot of them are just

18:03

little things in my apple notes

18:05

which I'm sure he know basically

18:07

anyone who does for whatever they're

18:10

doing is that quick. Couple.

18:12

Lines I do a lot of with memory.

18:15

I. Do this when I'm writing scripts.

18:17

I also do it when amazing stand

18:20

up where there's something about hitting record

18:22

that feels like a performance. I want

18:24

their according to be good. you know

18:26

that hadn't So our oh kind of

18:29

just do that. I actually have a

18:31

have. A voice Nemo

18:33

on. Little. Pocket

18:35

One. If I want to

18:37

go out on a walk without my phone and

18:40

snow, do the voice memo thing. That's

18:42

been nice. I do. I definitely get a lot of stand

18:44

up just. talking to myself

18:46

on walks and. Then honing it

18:48

in than than kind of trimming it

18:50

and. Just landing.

18:53

On what feels most essential and

18:55

our. That.

18:57

That feels. You. Know, really

18:59

fun it. it's it's kind of the way I

19:01

do it and then at some point sometimes I'll

19:03

I'll I'll actually handbrake bits. but I kind of

19:06

find this with. Almost. Everything I

19:08

do, I continue trying to find new ways

19:10

to tricked myself into writing. So.

19:12

It's hard to say that it's all

19:15

incredibly stable, but I've probably found five

19:17

different ways to do something. between. yeah,

19:19

printing our pictures and sometimes writing the

19:21

them were thinking you know, taking photos

19:24

and you know that that you know

19:26

with sometimes when I'm trying to think

19:28

of something that's going to be a

19:30

scripted reckoning, something front of taking photography

19:33

and than developing at and then I

19:35

know you know, whatever. So the writing

19:37

process it's it's like I just feel

19:39

I can can a over the last.

19:42

Ten Years. I just like I keep tricking myself

19:44

into finding a new way to keep doing it

19:46

in and and and try to grow. With

19:49

it. Yes, And then so

19:51

with this it's like when you're starting at

19:53

he said he started the show the do

19:55

you had a message. That.

19:57

you know was partly sincere and partly just like

20:00

Let's get on the same page, which is

20:02

different than like, I have

20:04

material about it. Do you remember what that

20:07

was like trying to develop material? What

20:09

did you land on? You had to

20:11

at some point be like, I have

20:13

this joke. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well,

20:16

that joke, I think was the

20:18

first thing that came off of that table setting, you

20:20

know, so I would kind of start with the table

20:22

setting of I'm not sure we're supposed to be here.

20:24

I don't know. I've been, I've been depressed. This

20:27

has been really hard. You know, and I

20:29

would also address the Jewish folks

20:31

in the room too and say, listen, I know

20:34

that you also have, you know, really, you know,

20:36

there's, there's so much generational trauma. We're

20:38

all kind of sorting through a lot of different feelings.

20:41

It's why my stand up has always been

20:43

called feelings because I think this is a space to

20:45

kind of do that. So I would really kind of

20:47

do a lot of that and then kind of talk

20:50

about this phone call I had with a friend and

20:52

then get into that joke. And then at a certain

20:54

point, yeah, I, it became clear

20:56

that I could just kind of get into

20:58

the joke part. And part of that

21:00

too, is because I also started

21:03

to use the proceeds

21:05

of the show to donate to

21:08

humanitarian aid that

21:10

was going into Gaza and a great

21:13

organization called Inara. They've been around forever

21:15

and they work with refugees, you know,

21:17

throughout the Middle East. But

21:20

I think people also kind of understood that context coming

21:22

into the show as well. And so

21:24

I was, I was talking a bit about the charity

21:26

elements, which is how the show opens and

21:29

kind of how my own complicated

21:31

feelings with charity, you know, and even

21:33

signaling charity and the idea of, Oh,

21:35

am I, I would rather donate in

21:38

private, you know, but at the same

21:40

time to one of your earlier

21:42

questions, that feeling of helplessness of how do

21:44

you use any sort of

21:46

platform you have in some way to, to kind

21:48

of point to what you care about. And

21:51

then I ultimately decided to do it, but that,

21:53

that in and of itself, I think also helps

21:55

at the table. And then very quickly,

21:57

I would kind of get into the, into the joke.

22:00

As much as you're able to or

22:02

comfortable to, can you talk about having that

22:04

phone call on October 10th? You

22:07

can name the person if you'd like, but you don't have to. But

22:11

categorize your relationship to this person if

22:13

you can, and then having that call,

22:16

processing however you felt it, and then how did it

22:18

get to the point where you're like, oh, this is

22:20

a setup for a joke. The

22:23

truth is that call is many calls. It's

22:25

not one call. And

22:27

a few people, people who are

22:29

close to me, people who weren't,

22:33

people who I think again,

22:36

look, if you start

22:38

looking at this region

22:40

on the 7th, and

22:42

we can debate whether that

22:47

is possible, right? Because this is

22:49

something we've all heard about for our whole

22:51

lives. And so I have a group of

22:53

friends who would get frustrated that no one

22:56

even paid attention until the 7th. And

23:00

the 7th obviously, as I say in the joke,

23:02

the 7th itself isolated

23:04

made me cry, and it sat

23:06

in a bed of other experiences

23:08

that I know quite directly and

23:10

understand quite directly. I

23:12

had to have a little bit of

23:14

grace for people who, whatever their backstory

23:16

is, all of a sudden on the 7th go, huh?

23:19

What's going on over there? And

23:21

then they ask

23:24

these questions that are,

23:29

it's shocking, and it did make

23:31

me feel like a kid. It made me feel

23:33

like when I was

23:35

a kid, and I had to explain

23:37

to people I wasn't a terrorist, and then

23:39

there's this whole story in the special of

23:41

when I was a kid. And

23:45

I think part of why I chose to really

23:47

put that story in the special was because I've

23:50

really felt like the kid version of myself lately.

23:53

And so it felt very natural to go back to that time.

24:00

just the feeling misunderstood

24:02

and feeling like I

24:04

have to explain that I because

24:08

of my faith and where I come from

24:10

that that does not mean that I am

24:14

that I have this proximate agreement

24:16

to violence or something you know

24:18

that there's this and

24:22

it's also even the whole

24:24

thing around violence being ascribed

24:30

solely to this region or

24:32

this faith in the way that it is it's

24:35

a silly proposition even to begin with when I view

24:37

the country that I live in to

24:40

be within its own walls and going

24:42

outwards one of

24:44

the most violent organizations that ever existed

24:48

and I say this is a very... I'm an

24:50

American bro, I'm an American so

24:53

these are diseases that exist everywhere the

24:58

expression of violence in this

25:00

way is a disease that

25:02

is everywhere and

25:04

it's weird to kind of say oh yeah

25:06

that happens over there it's

25:09

always been baffling and so

25:11

I think there's a level of feeling a little sad about it there's

25:14

a level of feeling disoriented about it and all that and

25:17

then also just kind of feeling like okay

25:19

but you know what I know a lot of

25:21

people in my life who would kind of

25:23

say man someone's bringing up this stuff you know

25:25

what I don't need to deal with that and

25:28

I think they're right to feel

25:30

that way no problem I

25:33

fully understand that point of view and

25:35

then for me I kind of... I have

25:37

that little extra thing in me that's like I

25:40

think it's probably from my family, my parents are so... they're

25:42

really gracious man and

25:44

they're really kind and my dad

25:46

was a hotel manager and

25:49

I think his whole thing was just like yo we're gonna make...

25:51

you gotta make people feel good and not even just for the

25:53

sake of that but I think

25:55

he was really on some like take care of people like

25:58

I think my dad is really... funny

26:00

you know I can't go to a I can't even

26:02

go to a restaurant with him or a hotel with

26:04

him because he's just like the hospitality these days is

26:06

dead you know it's like they want you to just

26:08

it's like what you want me to go and get

26:10

my own plate from the back you know that's his

26:12

energy now is like yeah they want you to get

26:14

your own plate at this point you know so he

26:16

really believes in in service

26:19

you know and and in genuinely

26:21

kind of seeing someone through something

26:23

and so maybe that's kind of

26:25

just in my DNA and and

26:28

only really again I'm a

26:31

beneficiary of of him and

26:33

my mom and so maybe I

26:35

just say okay I'm feeling upset

26:37

I'm feeling wild that

26:39

I even have to kind of explain this

26:41

to you but also yeah I

26:43

could talk about it I have I have I have the room

26:45

to talk about it I have this space to talk about it

26:48

and and with the hope that that

26:50

could again kind of be an

26:52

offering and then so how does it lead to but this

26:55

is funny that I'm doing

26:57

it or you know or whatever you I have a

26:59

feeling about this I can make it

27:01

money how does it get to like oh this is a

27:04

part of these experiences that I'm sure you're having and this

27:06

is the framing device to sort of get in that you

27:08

were like I'm gonna bring it up on stage yeah

27:12

I mean it's funny because I mean

27:14

it just made me laugh because I

27:16

it's like it's it's

27:18

a hilarious position to be in you know

27:20

it's like I've known you my whole life

27:23

and let's be real what's

27:26

really at the bottom of the question you know the bottom

27:28

of the question is like you

27:31

think I like this you think I might

27:33

like this you know and essentially what does

27:35

that mean you think there's a chance I

27:37

think terrorism is cool or that you think

27:39

I'm a you know and then and then it becomes

27:41

a really

27:43

funny setup for a joke where there's

27:45

this idea that I'm going to tell

27:48

you hey no

27:50

I'm not I'm super peaceful but

27:52

then the joke is set up that way and then kind

27:54

of takes the other

27:56

yeah yeah classic comedy right But

28:00

it's also like what I think really

28:02

sells it is your performance and the

28:04

writing and of The

28:07

non-joke part you allow yourself to

28:09

get claps Yeah,

28:12

like I do think it's like Cuz

28:14

I'm like wow He's just like ultimately decided he

28:16

needs to just get this and I think and

28:19

it's not like you don't mean it And I think it's clearly

28:21

do you mean it because you there's even

28:23

like a rhetorical move you do in that

28:25

speech Which is you sort of take a

28:27

specific question? To try it's

28:30

almost like you see you go like he's he's trying to

28:32

get you to say I feel bad for It's

28:35

really these Israeli people these Jewish people and you sort

28:37

of move it to be like I've always felt bad

28:39

And this is this is a sad situation as you

28:41

said it didn't start on October 7th It's

28:45

interesting thing the comedian did accept I'm

28:48

gonna like essentially do claps like I

28:50

got a clap moment It

28:52

was it This is the question

28:54

like did you go this is worth it because then

28:56

it really sets up the joke Did you go this

28:59

is worth it because I want to say this is

29:01

it both? How is it both? How have you negotiated?

29:04

It's both I think it's it's funny because

29:06

it's sincere in in my mind so in

29:08

my mind It's like hey You know what

29:10

this isn't really how I feel and like

29:12

I said I have room for all these

29:14

feelings And I want to talk to you

29:16

about it But

29:18

also fuck you you know like and because

29:21

I think that's like like there is nothing

29:23

on Earth that

29:25

isn't sitting in some crazy duality right

29:27

it's like we're born and living is

29:29

amazing and then it's like so what's

29:31

the trade-off? Well, you're gonna die

29:33

like there's just no way you're not gonna die

29:35

So there's always the nothing doesn't

29:38

sit in a wild duality and

29:40

so it's what's so fun about

29:42

that Which is like both parts are really true.

29:44

Oh yeah, I have room for that. Yes, man,

29:46

and Fuck off,

29:48

bro. Like what like you know and

29:50

that's kind of my relationship with my

29:52

friends is my relationship with my audience

29:55

It's it's what makes it funny

29:58

and not you know It

30:00

sets the tone for the special in terms of just like

30:03

don't this you're not I'm not

30:05

gonna give you your information I'm

30:07

not the spokesperson and I'm not like I'm

30:09

gonna say a lot of stuff I'm gonna

30:11

undercut all of it and yeah Maybe

30:14

half of it's accurate and also I really

30:16

don't care because it's just how I feel

30:18

and it's truly just a presentation of just

30:20

like Things I feel in in a way

30:22

that I hope kind of can move some

30:24

feelings around for you Was

30:26

the punchline always Taliban or had it

30:28

bit had you tried we piloted

30:31

other groups, right? You know,

30:33

so we tried Boko Haram Their brand isn't

30:35

strong enough to really get the pop of

30:37

the laugh you want, you know, so we

30:39

kind of move around but we Wait,

30:43

I do believe did you did you do that or

30:46

did I can't no no, no that it was always

30:48

Taliban, you know that I

30:52

wouldn't pass pass any comedian We

30:56

tried a few groups, you know, yeah, you know what? Hey

30:58

you tell like you I'm

31:00

gonna try Isis say check out like monitor it.

31:03

I tape record you just listen to that Yeah,

31:05

it's it with like six guys being like well.

31:07

Yeah, what group should it be? Yeah, what sounds

31:09

the funniest? Yeah Yeah, that's

31:11

not the kind of joke you can workshop with a bunch

31:13

of Arabs though Cuz at a certain point someone shows up

31:15

and goes what are you guys talking about? The

31:19

joke in and of itself creates the problem you're

31:21

trying to avoid, you know the joke or but

31:23

it feels like it's a joke in conversation with

31:26

The scene in Rami season one where it's you

31:28

and it's samba bin Laden. I wish I had

31:30

a cell phone They

31:33

had snake on it You

31:36

know, I never have anything that anybody has me

31:39

too And

31:47

then he goes my friend then

31:49

they turned back on me You know The

32:00

resenting of the question and also

32:03

that as you said

32:06

the child likes part of you that goes like

32:09

am I and like is that what is expected

32:11

of me? Like if that is what people see

32:13

me as, am I that and the wrestling of

32:15

it? Do you feel that? Do you see sort

32:17

of the similarities? Yeah, exactly. And that's kind of

32:20

that middle school thing we're

32:22

talking about and circling around is I

32:25

guess there's a part of me that

32:27

has this bewilderment right now

32:30

of oh whoa, there's

32:32

just been a kind of convenient

32:34

band-aid over all this for a

32:36

minute and maybe

32:40

it's actually a bit worse now

32:42

in terms of what people

32:44

are willing to say and think

32:46

and that could be accelerated by

32:48

the internet which wasn't where

32:50

it's at now over

32:53

20 years ago and I

32:55

have that bewilderment but then it's interesting

32:57

talking to my parents or

32:59

talking to people of

33:02

their generation who especially

33:05

Arabs in

33:07

the region or who've been in

33:09

the region or lived around it where

33:11

they're almost kind

33:14

of, they're like too old to

33:16

be bewildered. They're just like yeah, how

33:19

many wars have we seen? How many things have

33:21

we seen? And

33:23

they go oh you're young, you're still upset and

33:25

it's kind of wild but then I'll ask

33:28

my dad and I go but this feels worse

33:30

than after 9-11 and he was

33:32

just like oh yeah, no no this definitely

33:35

is without a doubt. But

33:37

there's still that recognition too while

33:42

also yeah, maybe

33:44

they're a bit more kind of worn

33:47

out. So the joke part of it,

33:49

did you always have the tag of like why

33:51

you liked Alabama and better all the

33:54

school stuff? I

33:56

think that all came out the first time I said it. Really?

34:00

That's beautiful. We'll

34:03

be right back with more Ramy's Support

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force of nature with the Weather Channel app And

35:56

We're back with Ramayusef. I have a colleague

35:58

who went to one of the and

36:00

she said there was a part, I think, around

36:02

this part where you said you had

36:05

a story about being part of a big Hollywood group

36:07

chat and

36:09

the pressure you

36:11

felt after the only other Muslim

36:13

person on the group chat said

36:16

something. Can you

36:18

talk about that and why

36:20

you decided to cut it? Well,

36:23

talking about it would defeat why I decided to

36:25

cut it. I'll

36:29

just say the part of the joke which is

36:32

that I love everybody in that group chat sincerely

36:34

and that is part of the fun

36:38

of a live stand up with locked up

36:40

phones and come

36:43

on out to the next tour. Well,

36:48

I was talking to her about

36:52

it and she was

36:55

somewhat categorizing the nature of the joke

36:57

and we were just talking about season

37:00

3 of Ramy, the episode where you go there,

37:03

though it's human in

37:05

a lot of ways, you make pointed arguments throughout

37:07

it. You call it a

37:09

prison essentially. How you categorize especially the

37:11

government and the IDF is

37:13

clear and this

37:17

special, you don't

37:19

at any point express the amount of anger that

37:21

is in that

37:24

episode of the show or throughout the third

37:26

season which I think has a certain amount

37:28

of anger in it and I was curious,

37:32

do you feel like you didn't want to

37:34

do that with your stand up? Because there is

37:36

part of the joke that says fuck you, right?

37:38

There's a joke that's like I resent the question,

37:40

you say somewhat angrily. I resent the question, right,

37:43

right, right. Ramy has a lot of that resentment

37:45

and it is more you yell more, Ramy, you

37:47

get into a fight in the

37:49

third season. Do you wish or

37:51

do you want? Do you feel like it's not

37:53

for the best for your stand up to have

37:56

the anger you're able to express somewhere else? In

38:00

a third season? Yeah, there

38:02

probably are. Pockets.

38:06

I'm trying to think like I I

38:08

I think there's maybe one scene I

38:10

could categorizes angry, but I think that.

38:13

I'm always kind of trying to have it

38:15

sit in. Kind. Of a

38:17

real or reverent oddity of a

38:19

situation, right? Because I think even

38:22

when we went into shooting the

38:24

episode in Palestine and Israel, we

38:26

kind of had this thesis of

38:28

you know what if both the

38:30

Israelis and Palestinians were pissed that

38:32

me and I think that part

38:34

of that was was. Showing

38:37

the design of the systems where you

38:39

know, this Rami character has this privilege

38:41

by having an American passport that even

38:43

though his era of even who is

38:45

Muslim and and in the show fictional

38:47

he he's half Palestinian are not in

38:49

real life but he is six in

38:51

the in the show and that's by

38:53

virtue of he Alma Bass playing my

38:55

mother so we kind of had artistic

38:57

license to to put him in this

38:59

situations and. Even. Though he

39:01

sits in all of those things,

39:03

that passport gets him out of

39:06

trouble and so again, kind of.

39:09

In the same umbrella of I feel like

39:11

this is the place where we solve it.

39:13

I kind of. I'm really

39:15

interested in how living here

39:17

makes me complicit in what

39:19

happens everywhere. and so. When.

39:22

There's an anger is often and anger. That.

39:25

Extends to myself, you know,

39:28

and dumb. You. Know

39:30

this isn't like it did.

39:32

The truth is I almost

39:34

think it is cosmically boring.

39:37

To. Talk about Netanyahu. I mean, it's

39:39

like. It's. not

39:41

even interesting it's it so far

39:44

gone the whole thing over there

39:46

i mean you know if anyone

39:48

like just looked at what's happening

39:51

even within because i think there's

39:53

so many people inside israel who

39:55

had who have been serious with

39:58

with the way This goes, you

40:00

know, and I think in

40:02

so many ways there's there's more

40:05

outspoken people impressed there so again, I

40:07

don't live there right and and I

40:09

I'm Always

40:12

going to be looking on how I'm How

40:15

I connect to it because that's if

40:18

I wanted to go any further It's like then I'll just

40:20

go work it I'll try to work at CNN and I'll

40:22

try to work, you know somewhere You know that where I

40:24

could do that kind of shit. So so so I think

40:26

for me again, the

40:29

the anger in the

40:31

series is warranted by the absurdity of

40:34

You know the rommy characters complicity in what

40:36

ends up being a kid Arrested

40:39

and you can kind of see even in real

40:41

life kind of how chillingly While

40:43

that was when there were prisoners

40:46

quote air quotes, you know released

40:49

back over to their families and and

40:51

a lot of them are children And this

40:53

is a system again that like we support

40:55

as American taxpayers So I'm always gonna

40:58

look at the American taxpayer side of it, right? Because

41:00

that is the thing I am most So

41:02

then I think when I get into Making

41:04

the special. Yeah, even when I

41:06

said fuck you in the podcast, you know, it's fuck

41:08

you with a smile, you know Yeah, it's like the

41:10

whole and the whole special is just kind of again.

41:13

It it it feels It

41:15

feels like I say everything I want to

41:17

say and that I get to offer something

41:19

that maybe in this one hour

41:22

only I uniquely could offer and

41:24

that it could even inspire others

41:26

to give what only they uniquely

41:28

can offer but Yeah,

41:31

I'm not interested in it in

41:33

in some of the other stuff. That's like It's

41:37

a really fine line when it just stops being

41:39

funny, you know And and and I think that

41:41

when you are kind of tapping

41:43

into that stuff I have to kind

41:45

of honor like what I'm actually doing and what my

41:47

job is which is you know, like I you know

41:51

It's still gotta be funny. Yeah. Yeah,

41:54

cuz I was wondering almost even like

41:56

To push it Even not necessarily on this topic

41:59

generally, but like. I know, like obvious

42:01

you'd really like George Carlin. That was it to

42:03

yeah, my degrees And it's like. Sometimes.

42:05

I feel like I see in your eyes

42:08

like what I went on stage and or

42:10

like built bar and been like yelling at

42:12

everybody and they love it and I think

42:14

I honestly think almost every comedian has that

42:16

part of that which is like what have

42:18

I was allowed to God saves. As

42:21

just curious Eastern nice,

42:23

especially around. People

42:25

and the topic If he just wanted have one

42:27

night where you're like. Let.

42:29

Me: let loose a particular frustrated or that or

42:31

is that ultimately like you see it as like

42:33

a customer service in which is like. That's.

42:37

Too selfish for me like they sign up for it.

42:39

They deserve to have him the type of shows that

42:41

he signed up for. Well

42:43

it's interesting to that. Was talking to

42:45

somebody about like Go Hits. Who.

42:48

I remember when I started watching Stand

42:50

Up Really, you know, was really drawn

42:52

a Bill Hicks and I was really

42:54

drawn to Carlin and I think that

42:56

they will always be in the Pantheon.

42:58

You know, I. Also

43:00

think. That. The

43:03

nature of the world and kind of

43:05

technology. Changes.

43:08

So. Many things and and and I think

43:10

including stand up. And so the reason I i

43:12

i mentioned Hicks and Carlin is because. New.

43:15

Can do that now on Reddit.

43:19

Like. What is a top trending Reddit

43:21

com as is not? A

43:23

sexy and Carlin ask read: what

43:25

is a you tube log is

43:27

not is that you know So

43:29

in my mind in this does

43:32

not undercut them because I think

43:34

they actually were probably even more

43:36

subversive because they were doing. It's

43:38

in an even more limited ecosystem.

43:40

So so what they did. Only.

43:43

Amplifies and time in terms of what

43:46

it's greatness is, but. In

43:48

today's context. Obama. Those have

43:50

a flawed. Because. that's what i'm

43:52

going to do you know sorts of

43:54

this is a different the art form

43:57

has changed in it is not interesting

43:59

to rant because you You will be

44:01

out-ranted by an Instagram

44:03

or a YouTube comment. These comments are so funny.

44:05

They are, oh my God,

44:08

they are funny. They're funnier

44:10

than half of a comedy. So

44:14

again, what could

44:16

you not do online? What

44:18

could you not do online in

44:21

a short video? Why does

44:23

this have to be a thing

44:26

that costs more

44:28

money and I brought cameras out and I

44:30

brought people out and I'm asking you

44:32

to give me an hour, I start

44:34

to feel like that's the job and

44:36

that's why I'm doing it the way that I'm

44:38

doing it because if I want to

44:41

do any of that other stuff, there's kind of more effective.

44:43

That's a great point. I never thought about it that way.

44:46

You said it's really bad. Yeah, but the truth is I'm

44:49

never holding back on like, oh, I want to go on

44:51

a rant because you know what, man, I can just call

44:53

my uncle and I will get, he'll just do it for

44:55

me. You know what I mean? Like

44:58

I don't actually, it's not, I'm

45:01

actually when I do this not holding back anything. I

45:03

actually walk away going, I can't believe I got away

45:05

saying everything that I wanted to say. You

45:07

want to describe your material in an

45:09

interesting way, which is it's things

45:11

that you're thinking about that

45:14

you have figured out how to make funny before you

45:16

decided where you

45:18

land on it and you sort of bring it

45:20

on stage. I was wondering, and

45:23

also at the same time, like you have

45:25

been creating for so

45:27

much of your life. Like you had a video camera,

45:30

you were filming sketches, your friends, you

45:32

did comedy. When

45:34

you started to college, you know, you left

45:36

school and you're already, you're like been having

45:38

this outlet. And I was

45:41

wondering when things like this happen, how

45:43

much are you processing actually on stage?

45:46

I think it was the early show on Saturday that I

45:48

shot. John Stewart came

45:51

and I had this really surreal moment

45:54

with him backstage because when I first

45:56

met him, I told him when

45:58

I was in high school. I

46:02

just remember feeling

46:04

that the only voice that

46:06

cared about me on TV was this

46:08

Jewish comedian

46:11

from New Jersey. And

46:13

so to be backstage, I'm like, God, I'm like

46:15

going to tear up telling you this, but to

46:17

be backstage with him at this

46:20

little bar in Jersey City

46:23

and, you know, talking to him about

46:25

that and

46:28

him seeing the hour. I

46:30

think there was something I'm so drawn to

46:32

him, you know, and I think we

46:35

present incredibly differently in

46:38

so many ways, but I feel

46:40

a kinship to the idea that

46:43

there's something worthy in processing

46:46

absurdity by kind

46:49

of sitting in the absurd column. And

46:52

so, yeah, there's a

46:54

lot of people who are

46:57

putting out work that

46:59

merits them to

47:01

be viewed through

47:03

the lens of kind of being leaders,

47:05

you know, and leaders who are providing

47:08

information in what's happening

47:10

right now, who are doing amazing

47:12

work under the lens of activism,

47:14

who are really brilliant. And

47:19

I am none of them, you

47:21

know, I am like kind

47:24

of, you know, and I've talked about this a

47:26

lot with like just a lot of

47:28

people who I work with and alongside, but,

47:30

you know, that yeah, we're for

47:33

the gestures. And I think, you know, what John

47:35

did so well was,

47:37

again, process that absurdity while being

47:40

funny, but it really speaks to

47:42

he created

47:44

an impossible condition because

47:47

as traditional media continues

47:49

to disintegrate into just

47:52

being so unfocused,

47:55

so biased, so

47:58

disingenuous to to what

48:00

is happening. There's

48:03

this weird thing of, okay well

48:05

maybe I can get my truth from the

48:07

comedians because they're the real philosophers and and

48:09

I partly blame John for that because he

48:11

was so good at his job and because

48:13

everyone has become so much worse

48:15

at their job. You know it kind of puts

48:17

you know what we do sometimes under this lens

48:19

of like well John did it this way and

48:22

and I do think I feel this kinship with

48:24

him and I feel this he inspired me and

48:26

he helped me and I also

48:28

almost again part of the design of the

48:31

joke we're talking about go out of my

48:33

way to say yeah no I'm also not

48:35

gonna do that too. Yeah so you brought

48:41

up the idea of truth you I

48:44

think you once said what do you

48:46

like about stand up is it doesn't have to be a

48:48

hundred percent factually true. You talked

48:50

about how people love to be like Rami

48:52

is a hundred percent autobiographical which clearly it

48:54

obviously isn't you aren't doing that job but

48:56

you talk about how it's emotionally true and

48:59

I think in the last whatever

49:01

it is year or so people have

49:03

trying to understand

49:06

what true means to comedians

49:09

or or they have been asked

49:11

to reckon with what comedians are doing up

49:13

there and I was curious how you

49:15

think of truth. Yeah I

49:17

mean I think that yeah

49:21

I don't know I mean I think it's about what's

49:24

funny you know and I think even like the question

49:26

you asked me about the phone call with the friend

49:28

October 10th it's like it's a

49:30

lot of phone calls that were like that you know and

49:33

texts that were like that and

49:35

then you take that and you make

49:37

it one thing you know and you make it

49:40

simple and

49:42

so I think that

49:44

there's a story in the special that I

49:47

tell about being a kid and a book

49:51

report and it kind of ties into

49:53

everything and you know a lot

49:55

of it is true you know and then there's a

49:57

lot of it that has it's interesting I think the

50:01

dressing up of a comedian on a

50:04

story is very similar to the dressing

50:06

up of a kid on a story.

50:08

And I think that when you listen

50:10

to kids tell a story, you

50:12

know some of it's true and you know

50:15

some of it is like, man, they're really

50:17

tapped into their imagination and they're kind of

50:19

running with something. And I think that is

50:21

how the public should view a comedian because

50:23

essentially a lot of our job is saying,

50:26

we would like to continue being children. And

50:28

I hope you find something funny about that

50:30

so we can keep wearing hoodies and kind

50:32

of traveling to random cities and making you

50:34

laugh. But there's something about focusing on what's

50:37

so funny that's childlike and I think there's

50:39

something that should be taken into kind of

50:41

the account of how

50:43

a story is designed. You

50:45

know, so you could look to kids a lot because kids are brilliant.

50:48

And they also, I mean, they just say

50:50

wild stuff. I

50:53

don't wanna spoil for those times seeing you at

50:55

the father joke, but I will ask you

50:58

a similar thing which is, is

51:01

there a cousin, answer if you want.

51:03

Is the cousin that you've now done multiple

51:05

things about finding them attractive, will

51:08

you say if they exist and if they are aware

51:11

that you're doing it? No,

51:13

the cousin doesn't exist, but what

51:16

I will say is, and this is, you know,

51:18

there are cousins in my family

51:20

who have married, you know, not of

51:23

our generation, but you know, this stuff

51:25

happened before. And so

51:28

I think I had kind of was just,

51:32

I found it hilarious and also liked

51:34

the idea of kind of defending that

51:37

it happens, you know, it happens in

51:39

a lot of cultures and even in

51:41

America, you know, but yeah, so

51:43

I was into the idea of defending that more.

51:46

I think if there was a cousin, it would

51:48

be impossible to do because it

51:50

would just make everything way too weird. I,

51:53

that's why I had it, I had it, I had it,

51:55

I was like, wow, this, how they don't want to interview

51:57

this cousin. Partfully,

52:01

I get famous enough that one

52:04

day someone will claim to be the cousin. You

52:06

know, you kind of... Someone will... Someone

52:08

will try to kind of call me and ask

52:10

for a couple hundred thousand dollars and if I

52:13

don't give it to them that they're going to

52:15

go to the press. Like to be that at

52:17

that level, you know, one can only hope. Yeah.

52:20

One day. For that kind of disaster. Yeah.

52:23

One of the themes of this special, especially the first half,

52:25

is sort of the expectations placed upon

52:27

you. You say, I have to

52:29

be the mayor of Muslim disasters. And

52:33

when you're thinking about going on stage, how

52:36

much are you

52:38

thinking about what you need to express

52:41

and how much are you feeling

52:43

is your responsibility to express and

52:45

how do those interweave with each

52:47

other? Yeah. I

52:50

mean, I think a lot

52:52

of what I've spent my

52:56

time thinking about and then landing at something that I

52:58

think really feels very clear to me. You

53:00

know, we have a representation issue.

53:02

If anything of the last few

53:04

months show is this

53:06

is a real issue. It's a real problem. It's

53:10

a problem that actually is

53:12

not just dehumanizing, but arguably

53:14

because people don't understand and

53:16

don't connect with us and

53:18

are open to believing certain

53:20

things that, you know, we've

53:23

been painted as barbarians, man. And

53:26

so when that is what's out there,

53:29

it allows there

53:31

to be a stomaching of what

53:33

is, you know, this incredibly militaristic

53:35

reaction that's happening. So these

53:37

things are, it's weird. This representation

53:39

thing is not without consequence. That

53:43

being said, what I've always

53:45

fought for is the idea that

53:48

what we need is not heroes that

53:50

do it all, but what we need

53:52

is a lot of people who are

53:54

allowed to express themselves. And that's how

53:57

you get actual

53:59

representation. You don't get it off

54:01

the back of, you know, Isa

54:03

and Donald only. You don't get

54:05

it because I got a show

54:07

and then Mo got one and

54:09

sick, you know, now that's happening.

54:11

No, there is a pantheon of

54:14

cinema that is, you know, allowed to

54:16

have so many different angles on a

54:18

lot of the same stories. And

54:21

I would argue even like something that I think

54:23

is to be commended is, you know,

54:27

this is something that, you know, I've talked with

54:29

my Jewish friends who are artists, you know, that

54:33

has happened really effectively if you

54:35

see how many Jewish filmmakers are

54:37

compelled to give their take on

54:39

the Holocaust. It is a

54:41

sub-genre, you know, I was talking with

54:43

Jonathan Glaser about this. I did a

54:45

Q and A for him for Zone

54:47

of Interest because I think when there

54:49

are important parts of your people's history

54:51

and important parts of who you are,

54:54

it's the job of many artists to go

54:56

at it in many different ways. And

54:58

I think that's what I want from

55:01

the communities that

55:03

I am part of is

55:06

that, yeah, it's all of us. And

55:08

I'm in my little corner that a

55:10

lot of you either love or

55:13

hate or find weird or a mix

55:15

of all of it. And that's great.

55:18

And what we need is more. It's always become very

55:20

clear to me that I should really

55:23

focus on the stuff that feels closest to

55:25

me and that I can do well and

55:27

that I should leave a lot on the

55:29

table to be explored and discussed because we

55:32

have a lot of artists in our community that

55:34

are really talented and they are gonna,

55:36

you know, jump in and this

55:39

is, we're at the beginning of, we

55:42

have had really rich art in Islamic

55:44

history. I mean, if you think about

55:46

the top-selling poet in the world

55:48

is roomy, right? So I was like, this

55:50

is an artistic culture and

55:53

we took a few hits with colonialism, but

55:55

I think we're back and I

55:57

think we're gonna make a lot of great art.

56:00

and we're at a beginning

56:02

of a reflection point. I

56:06

wanna ask you about how the special shot, I

56:08

first wanna ask you about one very, very, very

56:10

specific shot in feelings. Feelings were shot in the

56:13

round and

56:15

more notably the cameras are all visible

56:17

and there's one moment where the camera

56:19

is panning and it pans behind

56:22

another camera and Rami,

56:24

you, I don't know what I

56:26

should, you are seen through, I don't know if you'd

56:29

call it the monitor or the viewfinder of the camera,

56:31

right? And when I see that, I

56:34

see sort of like a

56:37

director or whatever making decision like, this

56:39

is a person performing, whatever that

56:41

means. So what is your history

56:43

of feeling like you're being watched? Right, that's the

56:45

other thing that sort of makes it feel like

56:48

and what is your feeling of the need to

56:50

perform both everyday life and

56:53

also the need to perform, you

56:55

know, what you do professionally? Yeah,

56:58

I mean, I think that we're

57:01

always presenting ourselves. You know, I

57:03

think, I don't know, I

57:05

sound like a Broadway star, life's a performance

57:07

baby, you know, but we are, I mean,

57:09

you know, whether, I mean, God,

57:12

tell me one person who doesn't gather themselves

57:14

together to go speak to their parents. Yeah,

57:16

yeah, yeah. You know, you do it with

57:18

your partner, you know, okay, here's where I'm

57:20

at and now I'm going to present, you

57:22

know, and so I think performance has a

57:24

connotation of being

57:27

fake or it has a connotation of,

57:29

you know, being

57:32

not genuine or whatever it might

57:34

be and I actually think that

57:36

we can be more, more

57:41

gracious with it because we're always

57:43

doing some form of it because we

57:47

have a lot of different parts to ourselves

57:49

and I think that there

57:52

was certainly a feeling, again, when I go back

57:54

to that middle school feeling and obviously

57:56

something that's permeated through a lot of my work, there was

57:58

definitely this feeling that I had. I had

58:01

to kind of almost

58:03

overemphasize the emanate safety. And

58:09

I felt that from my parents, the

58:11

need to do that. And

58:14

I don't feel any of that anymore. I

58:16

think that anything about

58:18

my approach that could be interpreted as,

58:22

oh, he's trying to make people feel safe is

58:24

probably more about growing

58:27

up in hotels than

58:29

trying to convince you of

58:32

anything. It's just, it's nice to connect

58:34

with people, especially in comedy, which can

58:36

be very focused on takedowns and it

58:38

can be really focused on, almost

58:41

say the thing that nobody wants to

58:43

say or that, you know, whatever. Like,

58:45

I don't like anything that's like to,

58:49

anything that feels edgiblourdy or anything that

58:51

feels like one of those kind of, maybe

58:55

they're not fabricated, but it's not my style

58:57

for those types of mic drop moments. But

59:00

yeah, I mean, that's a great

59:02

observation about the

59:05

camera within the camera there. And

59:08

I think part of what I talk about with Chris

59:10

a lot, and now we've worked together a lot. I

59:12

just got to work with him on the bear. And

59:15

then, we obviously

59:17

did both specials together and we worked

59:19

on Ramy together, but we don't

59:22

like forcing things. We kind of, we like

59:26

to let things breathe. I think, you know, when

59:28

we're working with actors or whatever it is that

59:30

we're doing. And I think with

59:32

that first special, we're in the round

59:34

and we said, hey, are we

59:36

gonna spend all this time coordinating

59:39

when I turn and all this kind

59:41

of stuff? No, let's

59:44

just shoot it. It's fine if we

59:46

see other cameras. And

59:48

then I think as we got into, you know, shooting

59:50

this next special, we went

59:52

obviously with a totally different approach. It was almost

59:54

the opposite approach in terms of, not

59:57

in terms of being naturalistic, but I think in terms of size.

1:00:00

of the space and it doesn't emphasize kind

1:00:02

of the grandiosity of Chicago Cultural Center. It's

1:00:05

truly a bar in

1:00:07

Jersey City. I also

1:00:09

was curious the color palette, right? So feelings is

1:00:11

shot and it's so warm tone. And

1:00:14

then this is so cool tones. Yeah.

1:00:17

Was that like, was it a thing of like,

1:00:19

what is this communicate? What is this lighting communicate?

1:00:22

Like are you getting to that level? There's

1:00:26

a couple of wide shots that you can

1:00:28

kind of feel in this new hour. I

1:00:30

was really, when I walked into the space,

1:00:32

there's some stained glass at the top and

1:00:34

there's a few, which this doesn't even really

1:00:36

read because the space was so small. But

1:00:39

what we did land on was I really

1:00:41

kind of had told Chris, first off, Chris

1:00:43

and Drew, you know, who the, the

1:00:46

DP that, you know, we've

1:00:49

worked together on the bear now as well.

1:00:51

Drew's amazing. Chris

1:00:54

and Drew and I, you know, it

1:00:56

was really fun because they're prepping the bear,

1:00:59

which I'm hoping to go back and do more of

1:01:01

this season with them. And I've

1:01:03

known them for so long, so we

1:01:05

have a shorthand. And so I was

1:01:07

like, listen, guys, this venue's small and

1:01:09

I know you're busy, you're prepping the thing, but

1:01:12

you're not going to come in here and just

1:01:14

set up some fucking cameras and just shoot this

1:01:16

thing. Like we need to make this thing look

1:01:18

cool. And I don't like, I picked a plane

1:01:20

venue and it's on you. I

1:01:22

was definitely like, there

1:01:26

was a bit of like threatening each other. And

1:01:28

then, and then, and then, you

1:01:30

know, I look at how

1:01:32

Drew frames it up and, you know, him and Chris's conversations

1:01:34

and the way they do it. And, and I said, Oh,

1:01:37

wow, you know, it has this feeling of

1:01:39

this beam of light coming down and simplicity.

1:01:42

And I think the thing that we talked

1:01:44

about a lot with

1:01:46

this special, I said to them, I

1:01:49

really love this material and I just want

1:01:51

to focus on the material. I don't need

1:01:54

tricks. I don't need to be fancy, but

1:01:56

I want the filmmaking to kind of compliment.

1:02:00

focusing on what's being said, which sounds

1:02:02

like It

1:02:04

almost sounds simple enough when I say it out loud But

1:02:06

I do think that you know There's been a push in

1:02:09

specials to kind of do something different and throw a short

1:02:11

film in the beginning and do this and do That and

1:02:13

I said no, I don't none of that, you know, like

1:02:15

let's just get to it. Yeah Yeah,

1:02:18

I have a side question, which is

1:02:20

like, you know, you've worked with Chris

1:02:22

and Andrew and it's

1:02:24

like Chris has worked with Bo and you've

1:02:27

opened for Gerard and I

1:02:29

believe some combinations worked on Drew

1:02:32

Michael special. Is there like

1:02:34

a crew like I there

1:02:36

as a person who watches specials closely and only

1:02:38

so many of them are sort of aspiring to

1:02:40

certain levels of like Let's

1:02:42

make this cinematic or whatever.

1:02:44

Yeah Are there

1:02:47

like secret meetings y'all have and it's okay.

1:02:49

If not, it's just sort of like I

1:02:51

truly was like Well,

1:02:54

everyone who's doing something has similar

1:02:56

conversations and I can't tell if

1:02:58

it's like you

1:03:00

know freaking Cubist

1:03:02

in the 1910s or 1900s

1:03:05

or if it's just like a coincidence and like you guys

1:03:07

are friends blah blah So do you feel like there's a

1:03:09

crew? 2017

1:03:14

that group you named and a few more. I think

1:03:16

it felt like we all spent Every

1:03:19

day together, you know, we named a

1:03:21

few more so once the

1:03:23

history books know to go back No, I mean, you

1:03:25

know, I mean it's like, you know Between

1:03:28

Gerard and Bo and and Chris

1:03:30

and you know When

1:03:32

I was in New York at the time that it was like an LA

1:03:34

crew at Tom was in New York you know, we'd we'd

1:03:37

link up with Drew and You

1:03:40

know one of my really good friends Josh for

1:03:42

Benowitz who was in who's in LA and you

1:03:45

know Kevin Barnett, you

1:03:47

know Was

1:03:50

was was obviously a huge part of our group

1:03:52

and So

1:03:54

there was there was this this man

1:03:56

we would I would tell Chris all the time. It felt like

1:03:58

we were at the blue

1:04:00

bottle on Beverly and you know,

1:04:04

A24 had like two little cubicles next to

1:04:06

it and we just kind of sit and

1:04:08

be like, yeah, I

1:04:10

wonder if these things are gonna get picked up. I wonder if there's

1:04:12

gonna be money for this movie. I wonder if this thing's gonna happen.

1:04:14

I wonder whatever. And we just talked about a

1:04:16

bunch of stuff. And I think now, you know, like

1:04:21

eight years later, everyone's kind of off

1:04:23

doing their own thing, but those were

1:04:25

really formative years. And then you kind

1:04:27

of just go, you know, and

1:04:29

then you just kind of enter what you're doing. And then

1:04:31

you'll even have time to talk to your mom, you know.

1:04:34

And so there was,

1:04:36

but there was, yeah, some really,

1:04:38

really formative years of really fun

1:04:40

conversations. And yeah, it's really

1:04:43

cool. Thank you. One

1:04:46

visual thing is, so, you know, feelings

1:04:49

has so much audience in it. The audience is lit

1:04:51

as well as you are. And

1:04:53

this special has, I believe, two

1:04:55

audience cutaways, both to

1:04:57

the same row of Hajabi, right? One

1:05:00

is during this joke, which is like during the clapping part,

1:05:02

you cut away to them. Yeah. Beyond

1:05:07

we needed edit point here, which is often why you

1:05:09

do an audience cutaway. Is there

1:05:11

a reason? It's like, was it specific? Like I think you

1:05:13

want to communicate? Did you want, oh, we're

1:05:15

having him clap. We should show that there's support. Do

1:05:17

you have a sense of that? You know,

1:05:20

that was one where the clap felt cool for the

1:05:22

joke, actually, to the point that you made where I

1:05:24

was like, oh, this is actually fun. But I think

1:05:26

that the first cut of this special, maybe

1:05:29

only had three cut points. So we

1:05:32

actually, the material, and I think,

1:05:34

I hope it still feels this way because we've put

1:05:36

more cuts in, but the material really, I

1:05:41

didn't stop at any point. I didn't have

1:05:43

to rework a lot and kind of going

1:05:45

between the three shows. Body positions were always

1:05:47

pretty similar. So I think

1:05:49

that there's not a ton

1:05:51

of cutting between shows. There's

1:05:54

not even a ton of cutting around things. There's

1:05:57

like maybe two jokes that I just pulled for.

1:06:00

for like one reason or another and a

1:06:02

lot of times it's length. So

1:06:06

I think putting the

1:06:08

emphasis on the audience in the first one, I

1:06:10

think I open up the first special with saying

1:06:12

like welcome to the meeting or something, there was

1:06:14

just this idea of, you know, I

1:06:18

love this idea of showing. Are

1:06:21

people laughing? Because again,

1:06:24

we're so misunderstood to a level of

1:06:26

just it's so weird,

1:06:28

man, you know, it's like they laugh. And

1:06:32

so I think that was really

1:06:34

emphasized in the first special. In this one,

1:06:37

we talked a lot about intimacy and a lot

1:06:39

about this one really

1:06:41

feels even more so like I'm digging into myself as

1:06:43

I kind of try to think about these things. And

1:06:45

so part

1:06:48

of it was the nature of the space again. But

1:06:51

we could have done even more to get more audience.

1:06:53

But I think Chris and I decided

1:06:55

really quickly, we don't really need a lot. You know, you're going

1:06:57

to feel them in some of the wides. Maybe

1:07:00

we'll go to them once or twice,

1:07:02

but we can keep

1:07:04

this feeling really intimate and like we're

1:07:06

kind of riding this thought out with

1:07:08

me. You end the special

1:07:11

thanking the audience, right? Special ends, big

1:07:13

applause. There's like some credits and then you like

1:07:16

give a director dress. I don't know if I've

1:07:18

ever seen this before. You

1:07:20

thank the audience for coming and you encourage them to pray.

1:07:22

However, they pray, which is and

1:07:25

it made me think of two things. First is when

1:07:28

you're on Pete Holmes's podcast, you mentioned that like

1:07:31

you guys are talking about this is the only

1:07:33

dimension where you all are not religious figures,

1:07:35

like it's so much as that your your

1:07:37

work is so religious focus and you're good

1:07:39

public speakers. The

1:07:41

other thing that made me think is like as

1:07:44

I was watching the special after rewatching Rami,

1:07:46

it's like this is exactly

1:07:48

what Rami would be really useful for

1:07:50

Rami. The character would be to have

1:07:53

what you have in this moment. That

1:07:56

sort of community of it. How are they in conversation

1:07:58

together? This sort of your faith practice? You're

1:08:00

the community of religion the community of the

1:08:02

comedy shows the people are there Yeah,

1:08:05

how does it interweave for you? Well,

1:08:09

I think you know Maybe this

1:08:11

is kind of getting at it, but the

1:08:13

Rami show is the

1:08:16

design of I

1:08:20

think I said a few times publicly

1:08:24

that some

1:08:26

people kind of make a show that's I I

1:08:30

Aspirational to what they wish was going on and

1:08:32

I think I made one that was oh This

1:08:35

would have been a bit more of the

1:08:37

nightmare than the dream and and it's it's

1:08:39

it's the it's me Where

1:08:42

if at every fork that I went right, maybe

1:08:44

I went left and it's me

1:08:46

without a creative outlet. It's me

1:08:48

without feeling

1:08:51

of being able to have More

1:08:53

graciousness and more gratitude and be able to

1:08:55

kind of tap into something spiritual But but

1:08:57

me kind of on the outside of the

1:09:00

door of all those things. So it's all

1:09:03

It all has like more longing and it has

1:09:06

more tension And I think that's where we

1:09:08

get to find those spaces to kind of

1:09:10

get into the absurdly weirdly funny

1:09:12

stuff that we get to do on the show and

1:09:14

then Yeah,

1:09:17

and then you know the stand-up again is like Finding

1:09:21

the levity in a way that that

1:09:23

could feel In

1:09:26

a sense, it's similar themes, but it's almost

1:09:30

The reverse, you know, it's like it's like, you

1:09:32

know on the show Oh, he's

1:09:34

outside the door and then in the stand-up special.

1:09:36

It's like no, no, he's in the room and

1:09:38

and and and really, you know kind

1:09:40

of We're gonna go

1:09:43

at all this dark stuff and like what if

1:09:45

there's a little pocket of light in there, you

1:09:47

know Like let's find that and so it's kind

1:09:49

of inherently more optimistic and I think obviously this

1:09:51

sign off for the special Wasn't

1:09:56

planning on keeping in there, but it just it just kind

1:09:58

of made sense when we're looking in the edit It felt

1:10:04

like a call to

1:10:06

something that didn't feel too... It's

1:10:09

weird to say that telling people to pray however

1:10:11

they pray doesn't

1:10:13

feel preachy to me because

1:10:15

it is actually textbook preaching. I was almost

1:10:18

going to say it doesn't feel too preachy.

1:10:20

I'm like, it is actually textbook preaching. The

1:10:22

most preaching of any comedian ever. It was

1:10:24

preachy that it could be, but

1:10:27

it felt right in there.

1:10:30

Honestly I know what you mean. It doesn't even

1:10:33

feel like you're making a religious demand upon them.

1:10:35

You know what it is? It also gets into

1:10:37

my whole thing about religious demands. This is where

1:10:39

the industry of religion is shot and it's just

1:10:41

over. Because

1:10:46

the religious demands or the religious calls are all

1:10:48

about what not to do. I think

1:10:51

what's so much more interesting is about what to do.

1:10:54

How can you fill

1:10:57

your space, aspirationally,

1:11:00

in a way that

1:11:03

interconnects you with caring about other

1:11:05

people and caring about yourself and

1:11:07

caring about a greater

1:11:09

good of some kind. These are the reasons

1:11:12

why these traditions have continued, but all anyone

1:11:14

ruminates on now is

1:11:16

the what not to do. I think what

1:11:19

is always so much more interesting is just

1:11:21

the what to do. Most

1:11:24

of that stuff is universally agreed

1:11:26

upon. I think maybe

1:11:28

that's part of why it doesn't feel that

1:11:31

way at the end. It's

1:11:33

just, I think, in

1:11:35

however you approach it, this is just

1:11:37

a thing that I try

1:11:39

to do and maybe we

1:11:42

all do and somehow we net

1:11:44

out with something slightly better than

1:11:46

yelling into our phones.

1:11:48

So there are a few jokes and

1:11:50

a bunch of ideas from the special

1:11:52

that people might recognize from Rami season three.

1:11:57

Part of me assumes most of the

1:11:59

same. jokes came first. And

1:12:03

so much as you you know, you live

1:12:05

an artist's life, you know, you're constantly creating

1:12:07

and will continue to how to stand up

1:12:09

fit into sort of as you're creating. So

1:12:12

how does how does it fit in? Yeah,

1:12:15

a lot of stuff will,

1:12:17

you know, because because a lot of this material,

1:12:19

again, there were different times where I was going

1:12:21

to shoot. But yeah,

1:12:25

I'll kind of have these seeds that I try on stage and

1:12:27

then bring them into the room, focus on

1:12:29

a story that worked and connected

1:12:31

or, you know, I'll feel the cousin

1:12:34

thing you brought up earlier, right? I remember

1:12:37

being at the laugh factory. And

1:12:39

I had this tape from the

1:12:41

laugh factory from

1:12:43

2016, where

1:12:47

I was on stage, and then there were two

1:12:49

comics that were supposed to go up after me.

1:12:51

And they were stuck in traffic or something some

1:12:53

accident had happened. And so I looked over at

1:12:55

the manager and she's like, just keep going, keep

1:12:57

going. And then, you

1:12:59

know, I look at this couple in the front

1:13:01

row and whatever standard stand up stuff, how long

1:13:03

you've been together and they go we're cousins. And

1:13:06

then the room goes, oh, and

1:13:08

then you know, I'm up there vamping. So I'm just

1:13:11

like, what's wrong with that? And then if you feel

1:13:13

the room just go what, you

1:13:15

know, what do you mean? What's wrong with

1:13:17

that? And then I kind of was excited

1:13:19

to defend something, you know, and then and

1:13:21

then it it so

1:13:23

so you know, you feel certain intentions in rooms and then

1:13:26

you kind of can trust that'll work

1:13:28

on screen too. Yeah, you know, and

1:13:30

I think that's where it becomes most helpful

1:13:33

is you have this live

1:13:35

test audience. That's probably better than any of

1:13:37

the traditional testing audiences, you know, when they

1:13:39

test a movie or a show and they

1:13:42

show it to like 20 people in Vegas

1:13:44

on oxygen tanks or whatever. But this is

1:13:46

kind of more, hey, we're, we're

1:13:49

here in this room, and I felt

1:13:51

something. And I trust that that's gonna work on

1:13:53

the show. And then the room, you know, we put

1:13:55

it in the show and the room makes it way

1:13:57

better than I could have on my own. We

1:14:00

really, you know, kind of bring it to the next

1:14:02

level. But you never go like, oh, I can now

1:14:04

repunch up my stand up because now I have all

1:14:06

the room stuff. I

1:14:09

don't think I've ever done

1:14:12

that. Although it

1:14:14

would well be within my rights. Yeah,

1:14:16

sure. Not to know, but I

1:14:18

don't think I have. No, I don't think I

1:14:20

have. Yeah. You're a busy man. You're doing a

1:14:22

lot of things. You have a lot of goals.

1:14:24

You're obviously directing a lot. Could this

1:14:26

be your last stand up special? You

1:14:29

know what's so crazy? I, the

1:14:32

night we finished shooting, my

1:14:35

stand up agent was there and I was like, dude, I don't

1:14:37

know. I have no idea when I'm gonna do stand up

1:14:39

again. Like this could be a while. And

1:14:42

then we finished the edit like four days ago.

1:14:45

And I looked at my wife and I was like, I

1:14:48

kind of want to do another one this year,

1:14:50

like this year. And I said, this might really

1:14:52

mess up our life schedule,

1:14:54

but I might need to figure out

1:14:56

how to do another one now. Because

1:14:58

I, you know, I was, I called

1:15:01

the set down from 90 to 50.

1:15:03

Yeah. You know, there's

1:15:05

all these ideas that I'm wanting

1:15:08

to do. And I feel, yeah,

1:15:11

it was five years between the first one and the second one.

1:15:14

And I learned so much. And

1:15:16

then editing the second one, I

1:15:18

also felt, oh, there were things that I noticed

1:15:20

when I was editing the first one that

1:15:23

I, that made the second one feel

1:15:25

better for me or feel more actualized for

1:15:28

me. And now I want to

1:15:30

do a third one because there's just like, I'm

1:15:32

feeling like, oh, I left all this stuff on

1:15:34

the table. So I almost want to do one

1:15:36

in August. Like, I don't even know how I

1:15:39

would do it. It's actually not possible. But again,

1:15:41

the child in me that wakes up in the

1:15:43

morning and goes, yeah, I can do everything. And

1:15:45

then four days later, you're just crying and eating

1:15:47

sugar and just depressed because you didn't even do

1:15:50

one of the four things you wanted to do.

1:15:52

But whatever, you know, but I don't

1:15:55

know the answer, but I definitely feel more

1:15:58

motivated than ever. But, you know, Who

1:16:00

knows? And then maybe even with all these feelings I don't

1:16:02

do another one, I think

1:16:04

it might be part of what I like doing. It's

1:16:08

a special, special. Yeah,

1:16:10

I think it's special for a lot

1:16:12

of reasons for me. I was

1:16:14

talking about this with a friend where even

1:16:18

in the conversation we were having earlier about Karlin

1:16:20

and Hicks, understanding what

1:16:23

stand-up should be now.

1:16:25

Because I think there's an argument that it

1:16:29

can be quote-unquote less special,

1:16:31

right? Like less, like you

1:16:34

could almost have more specials because you

1:16:36

could almost be more topical because there's

1:16:38

less of a barrier to getting it

1:16:41

up and there's a demand that's higher

1:16:43

than ever. I mean people will watch

1:16:45

a clip of four words of someone

1:16:48

telling an audience member that they need to

1:16:50

get a gym membership. And that's

1:16:52

got six million views, you know? You

1:16:55

get a gym membership, you go, okay,

1:16:58

and you're Indian. You just call me

1:17:00

Indian? I'm Pakistani. Put it up. Just

1:17:02

put it online. That's, I mean, that's

1:17:04

gold, right? But honestly,

1:17:06

those, here's the thing. Those

1:17:10

clips make me laugh so much. I

1:17:12

am not above, I did not even

1:17:14

say that sarcastically. That stuff actually, I'm

1:17:17

a child. Like everything that I shouldn't laugh

1:17:19

at, I laugh at. But I

1:17:21

guess what I'm trying to say is there's a

1:17:24

shift in which I think that specials

1:17:26

are allowed to be more topical. And

1:17:29

I think for me, I'm

1:17:31

always going to be striving for timely

1:17:34

and timeless in all of my work.

1:17:36

And that continues to be with stand-up.

1:17:38

There's a few things in the special

1:17:40

where I get in on the weeds

1:17:43

of 2024 or whatever. But the funny

1:17:45

thing is, when you

1:17:47

think about it, a lot of these themes are

1:17:50

algebraic. Replace ex-president's

1:17:53

name, replace ex-conflict,

1:17:55

replace ex-whatever, and

1:17:58

hopefully could be viewed in 10 years. years based

1:18:00

on how personal they ultimately are.

1:18:03

And so that's where I think kind

1:18:05

of the timeless part

1:18:08

can come in for anyone who might be interested

1:18:10

later in something you put out. So

1:18:13

yeah, this one's special for me. So

1:18:20

now it's time for the final segment of the show. It's

1:18:22

called The Laughing Round. It's like a lightning round, but because

1:18:24

this is a comedy podcast, I call it The Laughing Round.

1:18:28

Do your favorite joke joke, like a street joke? Favorite

1:18:31

joke joke. You

1:18:34

know, when I think of like joke jokes,

1:18:37

I actually think a lot about Mitch Hedberg, you

1:18:40

know, like he he just yeah, he

1:18:42

he he just really just all

1:18:46

his one-liners. So funny, like the

1:18:48

things that you think about every day, like I've never

1:18:50

every time I get on an escalator that's broken, I

1:18:52

think of Mitch going, well, it just became stairs. You

1:18:55

know, like that joke always makes me laugh. Or he

1:18:57

has that. He has that

1:18:59

joke about I don't even remember what

1:19:01

animal, but about having like a really

1:19:03

cute infestation in his apartment. I don't

1:19:05

remember the animal. But

1:19:08

yeah, Mitch, there were a

1:19:10

few comics whose records I would just listen to

1:19:12

and make my friends listen to

1:19:14

in the car. You know, we would go

1:19:16

into school in Newark and then we would

1:19:18

drive. You know, we'd go out into

1:19:20

the city in New York or we would go down

1:19:22

to New Brunswick and go to the college campuses, the

1:19:24

Rutgers or whatever the parties with and on the way

1:19:26

and on the way back. I listened to Mitch Hedberg

1:19:28

on the way. We're listening to Carlin on

1:19:30

the way back. And then we go somewhere

1:19:32

else. We're putting on this Hannibal Burris record. But Mitch

1:19:35

was a big. Yeah, that was

1:19:37

fun. But one of my

1:19:39

favorite things about preparing to interview you is

1:19:41

you tell stories about people that are essentially

1:19:43

your peers, but like a little bit older

1:19:45

in a way that I assume would really

1:19:47

annoy them. It's like not even

1:19:49

annoying them, but you're sort of like you are like 32. And

1:19:52

these are like comedians were like 41. Or

1:19:54

whatever. So it was like you'll talk. You had

1:19:57

like I saw Jenny Slate one time. Yeah, like

1:19:59

really. I was like, Jenny Slate

1:20:01

is also a millennial

1:20:03

comedian of yours. So

1:20:06

it's so funny to be like, can't we listen to Hannibal

1:20:08

Burris' record? But that's how it works. Well,

1:20:11

because I also had a really, it was the switch that

1:20:13

allowed me to do stand-up was, I

1:20:16

went from, I will never do

1:20:18

stand-up, wow, I only write things

1:20:20

and play with my camera, to

1:20:22

then one day going, maybe I could do

1:20:25

stand-up, and then I was just doing stand-up.

1:20:27

There was a long period of time where

1:20:29

I would go to Whiplash at UCB Chelsea

1:20:31

and watch these comics, and it

1:20:33

was just like, I was at a magic show. I

1:20:35

couldn't believe that anyone did it. And then

1:20:38

I think Jeremy, who hosted

1:20:40

Whiplash, had me on for, I think

1:20:42

it was the very last Whiplash at UCB, or

1:20:44

maybe the one right before it, that was a

1:20:46

real full circle moment for me where I said,

1:20:48

whoa, this is crazy. Because when I first started

1:20:51

coming to the show, I could have never thought

1:20:53

I'd be on this stage. So I think that's

1:20:55

part of it, but yeah, maybe it would be

1:20:57

for, maybe I'll stop doing that. No,

1:20:59

I think it's great. I think it's just

1:21:01

sort of like you just don't, because you'll

1:21:03

say, Karlin, and I do think it's also just

1:21:06

like, as I get

1:21:08

older, as this thing happens, like when

1:21:10

you think of influential comedians, there's

1:21:12

like, you hear the stories over and over

1:21:14

again, it's like, oh, I saw Eddie Murphy, I saw George Carlin,

1:21:16

I saw Richard Pryor, whatever. Or

1:21:18

even like David Tell or something like that.

1:21:21

But now, those people are going to be

1:21:23

comedians that I think of are

1:21:25

great, but who I think of is closer to my

1:21:27

age, and then I'm like, oh no. You're like, oh

1:21:29

them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's just so many, like, I

1:21:31

saw Jenny Slate's one person show, and I was like,

1:21:33

Jenny Slate? As

1:21:37

she should, she should be. She is,

1:21:39

dude. Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. I finally just got to

1:21:41

meet her, actually. And you tell her you were,

1:21:43

she was a big influence on you? Oh,

1:21:47

yeah. I told her probably what I've

1:21:49

said in press, a couple press things

1:21:51

before, but I, yeah, we presented at

1:21:53

the Critics Choice Award together, and I

1:21:55

was just backstage just getting it. I mean, she's so

1:21:57

funny and so cool. And

1:22:00

so yeah, I told her everything. I spilled. Is

1:22:04

there a joke you wish you could steal? A joke of

1:22:06

another comedian that you wish, oh, I wish I had that

1:22:08

in my act. I can tell it, it is mine. Well,

1:22:11

okay, yes. There's a joke that actually

1:22:14

Steve wrote that you have to have

1:22:16

muscular dystrophy and be in a wheelchair

1:22:18

in order to do, but it

1:22:20

is the best joke I've ever heard

1:22:22

where he goes, he

1:22:25

basically, he starts off by

1:22:27

saying, like I'm joining the NRA. You

1:22:31

know, I'm joining the NRA because

1:22:33

these fucking Democrats won't

1:22:36

let me get a new wheelchair through

1:22:38

the healthcare. So I'm going to

1:22:41

the NRA. I'm gonna tell them I need

1:22:43

a chair with a gun. They

1:22:48

told me it's coming next week. I

1:22:51

mean, it is such a good joke. It

1:22:54

actually blows my mind. I think about it

1:22:56

all the time, but

1:23:00

it's so good. What

1:23:02

is the best time you ever bombed? Oh

1:23:07

man, it's always so

1:23:09

painful. I mean, I had a

1:23:12

show that I did, so

1:23:17

I talk about this a lot with Mo Amr and

1:23:23

with other comedians who are

1:23:25

Muslim, buddy

1:23:27

of mine Azhar Usman and Mo

1:23:30

and Azhar always talk about this thing called

1:23:32

the kebab circuit. And

1:23:34

they say it kind of like a joke, but

1:23:36

basically there are kind

1:23:39

of Muslim community events where they'll be getting people

1:23:41

together and they want like halal comedy. So let's

1:23:43

say, let's get someone who can make us laugh,

1:23:45

but you get all these prerequisites before you go

1:23:47

in. Don't talk about politics, don't talk about sex,

1:23:51

don't curse, you know? So you kind of go in

1:23:53

and I always kind of

1:23:55

love those shows because they essentially

1:23:57

prepare you to do a late

1:23:59

night set. at some point where you can barely

1:24:01

talk about those things because you're on national TV. So

1:24:04

it's actually something about being

1:24:06

halal that's very similar to network television.

1:24:11

I had to do the show once though and

1:24:13

they were like, it's at the mosque and I

1:24:15

said, okay, but then the room we were supposed

1:24:17

to do it in was under construction. So we

1:24:19

actually did it in the prayer area on the

1:24:21

carpets and then you have to take your shoes

1:24:23

off. And so I'm doing standup in my socks.

1:24:26

And when I tell you

1:24:28

that I was there for 35, 40

1:24:31

minutes doing this act

1:24:33

and that no one lasts

1:24:36

until minute 30, like

1:24:38

the last five were great. The

1:24:40

first 30 were silence. And

1:24:43

I only think I cracked them open

1:24:45

for the last five out of pure

1:24:47

exhaustion where we were almost just all

1:24:49

in this communal disaster. And you

1:24:53

almost just get exasperated and you go,

1:24:55

let's help this guy out. Because

1:25:00

the event might have been a charity event

1:25:02

and the biggest charity might have been the

1:25:04

way they started eventually laughing. They said, let's

1:25:06

give this boy something so that

1:25:08

he doesn't fully

1:25:10

give up on his life. I must have been 25. It was

1:25:13

horrifying, but also the best. You

1:25:19

do stand up in your socks. Do

1:25:22

you have a short story of an interaction with

1:25:24

a legendary comedian, living or dead, you'd be willing

1:25:26

to share with us? You

1:25:29

know, I saw there

1:25:32

were some times that Mo, he

1:25:34

opens for Chappelle a lot. And

1:25:37

so I guess I must have met Chappelle when

1:25:39

I was like 25 or 26. I just

1:25:42

remember meeting him, saying hi to him. And

1:25:45

I'm, you know, obviously this guy's my

1:25:48

favorite. And then I saw him

1:25:50

a year later. And

1:25:53

he remembered my name. And he had no

1:25:56

reason to remember my name. He had not

1:25:58

seen me. Yeah. To my knowledge. do

1:26:00

stand up. I

1:26:02

didn't perform when I saw him. I only

1:26:04

had a really brief hello and then I

1:26:06

was way too shy to even talk to

1:26:08

him and anytime I meet someone who is,

1:26:11

you know, I'm a fan

1:26:13

of or who's famous or anything like that, I

1:26:16

really try not to burden them with too much stuff

1:26:18

because it's like, what's the point? You know what I

1:26:20

mean? It's not like, just give him a break. So

1:26:22

we didn't even, it just blew

1:26:24

my mind though. And I saw him a year later.

1:26:26

He remembered my name. I was like, why? Why

1:26:29

do you? And then I just became really impressed with

1:26:31

his memory and it made me think, oh, he must

1:26:33

have a wild memory. And then

1:26:35

I asked some people who know him, is

1:26:37

his memory really good? And everyone just said,

1:26:40

the guy does not forget a thing, you

1:26:42

know? And then that made

1:26:44

me feel, whoa, this man is impressive.

1:26:49

Who's the best comedian working? Whatever

1:26:51

that means to you. You

1:26:55

know, best

1:26:58

special I've seen in a really

1:27:00

long time is Shane Gillis's. I

1:27:03

mean, he really just,

1:27:06

he really makes me laugh.

1:27:09

And I just think that

1:27:11

he, yeah man,

1:27:13

he just does it.

1:27:16

I mean, he's so funny and

1:27:18

he just doesn't take himself or

1:27:20

maybe anything seriously. And I think

1:27:22

that's what's so refreshing about it,

1:27:24

right? Because even like, you

1:27:26

know, you're interviewing me about a special and like we're

1:27:28

talking about, look how much serious shit we're talking about.

1:27:30

Like, what would you even talk about with Shane? Like,

1:27:33

Hey man, what kind of sandwich do you like? Like

1:27:35

that's what's so brilliant about it.

1:27:37

It's like, it's just dumb, you

1:27:39

know? And so the part of me that

1:27:41

just wants to watch something super dumb. And

1:27:43

I watch Shane and I go, this

1:27:46

is so much harder than it looks. This guy

1:27:48

is so, yeah, he's

1:27:51

so zoned in. I mean, he

1:27:54

really, really, yeah, that special that he

1:27:56

just put out, I thought was incredibly impressive. Do

1:28:00

you have a joke that has never worked that

1:28:03

but when you thought of you like this is so funny But just

1:28:05

never works, but you will go to your grave being like I was

1:28:07

right. They were wrong That

1:28:09

that is funny You

1:28:16

know, I always I guess

1:28:18

this is what's fun about kind of like Getting

1:28:23

to work in TV and then also getting to

1:28:25

do stand-up is because I tend to

1:28:27

figure out There's a joke that I'll tell

1:28:29

on stage that Even

1:28:32

though it didn't get a laugh it ends up in

1:28:34

the mouth of a character, you know,

1:28:36

and and then and Then,

1:28:40

you know, it'll it'll kind of end up somewhere

1:28:42

or you know, it'll end up working Yes,

1:28:47

so there was this one joke for

1:28:49

a while that I was trying to get to make

1:28:52

work I'm trying to think if it actually made it into the

1:28:54

show I Think

1:28:57

it was in the show, but then we didn't even oh,

1:28:59

wow didn't even work in the show So,

1:29:02

okay. Yeah, so there's actually a joke that still

1:29:05

hasn't worked. Um It

1:29:08

really made me laugh I just I don't know maybe I

1:29:10

never figured out how to write it there was just something

1:29:12

really funny that um someone

1:29:14

in my family was just like Talked

1:29:18

about how at work he'll never go to

1:29:21

anybody's wedding because

1:29:23

he there's a gay guy he

1:29:26

works with and He

1:29:29

was worried that one day that guy would

1:29:31

invite him To his wedding and he

1:29:33

wouldn't want to go because he doesn't think gay people should

1:29:35

get married But if

1:29:37

he never goes to anyone's wedding at work

1:29:42

Then he's not homophobic and and and and and

1:29:44

it was just so funny to me because it's

1:29:46

actually so considerate It's the most

1:29:48

thoughtful thing. He's like really doesn't want to

1:29:50

hurt this guy's feelings But also

1:29:52

still wants to hold his opinion and that really

1:29:55

makes me laugh man But I never I never

1:29:57

quite cracked it as like a clean pun line

1:30:01

and then I think I wrote it into the show

1:30:03

but then we ended up cutting it

1:30:05

for time because it was like part of this

1:30:08

other scene and maybe I'm

1:30:10

forgetting that it slipped in somewhere else because

1:30:12

sometimes there's jokes that didn't work in

1:30:14

a season and then we put it in later but I don't

1:30:16

think so I don't think it

1:30:18

ever went in but it I mean

1:30:20

you just laughed so maybe just it is funny it's

1:30:23

just sort of but like I'm

1:30:27

focused ready to hear like I do think an

1:30:29

audience would be like it's

1:30:31

there's like a little bit of complicated well because

1:30:35

the premise itself is just insane right yeah yeah

1:30:38

it's like wait what you know so the whole

1:30:40

thing is kind of complicated but it is

1:30:42

that fundamentally it's funny that

1:30:44

this person both is

1:30:48

so inconsiderate to the what the existence of gay

1:30:50

people that he does not believe they should get

1:30:52

married but so considerate to

1:30:55

gay people that he's like well I

1:30:57

don't want this person's feelings to be

1:31:00

hurt no that's the tension of it

1:31:02

it's hilarious it's like it's like I

1:31:04

I would love to keep my worldview

1:31:07

incredibly private you know yeah

1:31:12

I think I

1:31:14

believe in you

1:31:16

well thank you so much for doing this this

1:31:19

gave me a lot of what I needed honestly

1:31:21

just seeing you laugh at it you know there

1:31:23

we go yeah

1:31:26

I really appreciate it thanks for the great

1:31:28

the great questions is really fun that's

1:31:31

it for another episode of good ones you

1:31:33

can stream Rami on Hulu and feelings and

1:31:35

more feelings on max follow

1:31:37

Rami on social media at Rami good

1:31:40

ones produced by myself and Jelani Carter got my sheet

1:31:42

I should did our theme song right our

1:31:44

view and rates shown Apple podcast five stars please

1:31:47

email any comments questions or laughing around suggestions

1:31:49

to good one [email protected] or treat us at

1:31:51

good one podcast I'm just David Fox you

1:31:54

can follow me at just see David Fox

1:31:57

bye-bye book comedy book wherever books are sold

1:32:00

Good One TV show on Peacock. Thanks

1:32:02

for listening to Good One from New

1:32:04

York Magazine. You can subscribe to the

1:32:06

magazine at nymag.com/pod. We're here every

1:32:09

other Tuesday. Have a good one.